Photograph album prints have conventionally been generated by printing images laid out on single sheets. By laying out images on single sheets, a photograph album can be generated easily, since prints do not need to be pasted later on a photo mount.
However, an attractive image layout requires special knowledge, and laying out images is a time-consuming operation.
For this reason, various kinds of methods have been proposed for laying out images with ease (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication Nos. 9 (1997)-214868 and 2000-299777). In a method described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 9 (1997)-214868, necessary and unnecessary images are specified by a user when the images are shown to the user, and only the necessary images are laid out. According to this method, a photograph album can also be printed easily by preparing a template for image insertion. In a method described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-299777, images are arranged according to time of photography thereof, and the images are laid out at positions preset according to the size and orientation of each of the images.
However, in the method described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 9 (1997)-214868, a user himself/herself needs to decide an image layout, and a template is necessary. Furthermore, in the method described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-299777, only layouts available according to combinations of image orientations can be used. Therefore, variations of the layouts are limited.
The present invention has been conceived based on consideration of the above circumstances. An object of the present invention is therefore to lay out images easily without preparing a template.